According to the flash estimates released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, during the first quarter of the current year gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.2 percent in the euro area and by 0.1 percent in the EU-27, compared to the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2012, GDP had decreased by 0.6 percent in the euro area and by 0.5 percent in the EU-27 on quarter-on-quarter basis.
Compared with the same quarter of 2012, in the first quarter of 2013 seasonally adjusted GDP decreased by one percent in the euro area and by 0.7 percent in the EU-27, after respectively falling 0.9 percent and 0.6 percent year on year in the previous quarter.